Christmas Pastry

It was well after midnight on Christmas Eve when I realized that not only was I making a yeasted dough (please see my post about the Bread In The Pipes Incident) but that it was a yeasted puff pastry dough and I still had two more "turns" to do and still needed to chill the stuff for an hour before I could carry on. But the pastries (recipe here) were, my husband said, "One of the best things you've ever made". I changed the recipe a bit. What's the deal w/ beating the butter w/ a rolling pin? Nope. God and Cuisinart teamed up to make the food processor for this very reason. And, besides, the kids were in bed and "Santa" was in the living room wrapping presents and drinking beer, so I couldn't wake them up in the name of Following the Recipe Exactly. Sometimes the science of baking has to take a hit to keep the visions of sugar plums dancing and all. And I didn't have cream cheese. I had mascarpone. And there was the panic: Pinch what, fold how? Huh? And yet.... I wanted to put the picture of the little layers of the finished dough with its lovely layers, but I thought the pastries looked better.

Oh, yeah. The score on the accursed paper was increased juuuust enough to get an A in That Class. Happy New Year!